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Kyoung S Ro

Environmental Engineering

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Kyoung S. Ro

Research Environmental Engineer
USDA-ARS
Coastal Plains Soil, Water, and Plant Research Center
2611 West Lucas St., Florence, SC 29501-1242
843-669-5203 x107

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2622-8279

Kyoung.Ro@usda.gov

Dr. Kyoung S. Ro is a research environmental engineer currently working on livestock air quality and waste-to-value added products.  His research interests are assessment of fugitive gas emission from animal feeding operations using different livestock manure treatment/storage techniques and development of innovative thermochemical processes in converting agricultural and livestock wastes to value-added products.

Education and Training:

Ph.D., Civil Engineering, University of California at Los Angeles
M.S., Civil Engineering, University of California at Los Angeles
B.S., Chemical Engineering, University of California at Berkeley

Professional Experience:

Research Environmental Engineer, USDA-ARS, Florence, SC
Associate Professor, Civil Engr. Dept., CCNY-CUNY, NY, NY.
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Civil and Env. Engr., LSU, Baton Rouge, LA.
Post-Doctoral Researcher, Dept. of Civil and Env. Engr., UCLA, Los Angeles, CA.

Selected Publications:

      • Ro, K.S., Stone, K.C., Johnson, M.H., Flesch, T.K., and Todd, R.W. Optimal sensor locations for the backward Lagrangian stochastic technique in measuring lagoon gas emission. J. Enviorn. Quality 43:1111-1118. 2014.  
      • Ro, K.S., Novak, J.M., Johnson, M.G., Szogi, A.A., Libra, J.A., Spokas, K.A., and Bae, S. Leachate water quality of soils amended with different swine manure-based amendments. Chemosphere 142:92-99. 2015.
      • Ro, K.S. Kinetics and energetics of producing animal manure-based biochar. Bioenergy Res. 9: 447-453. 2016.
      • Han, L., Ro, K.S., Sun, K., Sun, H., Wang, Z., Libra, J.A., Xing, B. New evidence for high sorption capacity of hydrochar for hydrophobic organic pollutants. Environ. Sci. Tech. 50: 13274-13282. 2016.
      • Ro, K.S., Moore, Jr., P.A., Szogi, A.A., Millner, P.D. Ammonia and nitrous oxide emissions from broiler houses with downtime windrowed litter. J. Environ. Qual. 46:498-504. 2017.
      • Ro, K.S., Flora, J.R.V., Bae, S., Libra, J.A., Berge, N.D., Alvarez-Murillo, A., Li, L. Properties of animal-manure based hydrochars and efficacy of published predictive models. ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 5:7317-7324. 2017.
      • Ro, K.S., Li, H., Hapeman, C.J., Harper, L.A., Flesch, T.K., Downey, P.M., McConnell, L., Torrents, A., Yao, Q. Enhanced dispersion and removal of ammonia emitted from a poultry house with a vegetative environmental buffer. Agriculture 2018, 8, 46; doi:3390/agriculture8040046
      • Ro, K.S., Vanotti, V.B., Szogi, A.A., Loughrin, J.H., Millner, P.D. High-rate solid-liquid separation coupled with nitrogen and phosphorous treatment of swine manure: Effect on ammonia emission. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. 2:62; doi:10.3389/fsuf.2018.00062. 2018.
      • Hwang, O.H., Lee, S.R., Cho, S.B., Ro, K.S., Spiehs, M., Woodbury, B., Silva, P.J., Han, D.W., Choi, H.C., Kim, K.-Y., Jung, M.-W. Efficacy of different biochars in removing odorous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from swine manure. ACS Sustainable Chem. & Engineering. DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.8b02881. 2018.
      • Ro, K.S., Libra, J.A., Berge, N.D., Flora, J.R.V., Bae, S., Pecenka, R. Combustion behavior of animal-manure based hydrochar and pyrochar. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering. 7:470-478. 2019; DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.8b03926.
      • Ro, K.S., Dietenberger, M.A., Libra, J.A., Proeschel, R., Atiyeh, H., Sahoo, K., Park, W.J. Production of liquid fuels from agricultural and forest residuals. Environments 6:97, 2019.  DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/environments6080097
      • Sanchez-Hernandez, Ro, K.S., Szogi, A.A., Chang, S, Park, B. Earthworms increase the potential for enzymatic bio-activation of biochars made from co-pyrolyzing animal manures and plastic wastes. J. Hazardous Mat. 408, 124405, 2021.  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124405
      • Ro, K.S., Libra, J.A., Alvarez-Murillo, A. Comparative studies on water- or vapor-based hydrothermal carbonization: Process analysis. Energies 13 (21), 5733, 2020.  
      • Ro, K.S., Woodbury, B., Spiehs, M., Szogi, A.A., Silva, P.J., Hwang, O., Cho, S. Pilot-scale H2S and swine odor removal system using commercially available biochar. Agronomy 11, 1611, 2021.  DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11081611
      • Ro, K.S., Jackson, M.A., Szogi, A.A., Compton, D.L., Moser, B.R., Berge, N.D. Sub- and near -critical hydrothermal carbonization of animal manures. Sustainability 14(9), 5052, 2022.  DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su14095052
      • Alvarez-Murillo, A., Libra, J.A., Ro, K.S. Theoretical framework for estimating design reactor pressure for water-based hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) systems. Thermal Sci. Eng. Progress 30, 101241, 2022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsep.2022.101241